We discuss the main reliability issues in present and future electronics equipment in elementary particle physics experiments. Aspects related to presence of high magnetic fields, ionizing and nonionizing radiation and their effects on active electronics devices are briefly reviewed. Moreover, we also describe the constraints on the design issues due to the long lifetime of the experiments and to the reduced accessibility to the system, which is possible only during well-defined scheduled downtime periods.

The target reliability levels of Photovoltaic inverters, that encounter Photovoltaic panels reliability, is a challenging issue. Currently a lot of efforts are carried out to improve the lifespan of photovoltaic inverter and reduce their outages. Special attention in this respect is given to the failure causes of inverters. In this paper, a complete FMECA analysis is presented to understand the root causes of these failures, estimate the local and final effects on generating energy, and recommended actions to avoid these failure modes. Additionally, an assignment of risk priority numbers is carefully considered to the each failure mode in order to prioritize the various hazards for a better maintenance strategies.

The usage of IGBTs in power electronics field is increasing day by day and drawing the attention of researchers to characterize its application in different fields. One of the most important parameters for the designers is to determine the energy losses introduced by these devices. The manufacturers of IGBT do not always provide this parameter in the same way and very often at comparable values of the parameter may correspond different behaviors. Moreover, in the tests carried out by manufacturers, some aspects that are responsible for a significant measurement uncertainty are neglected or underestimated. With the development of two new measurement system, this paper investigates about some particular sources of uncertainty that can affect static and dynamic loss of IGBT measurements. In particular, evaluation on the effect of self-heating process in the measurement of voltage drop Vce across the collector emitter terminal. In addition, this paper presents the effect of socket that holds the DUT in the measurement of Vce. Finally, the result of investigation on the effect of stray inductance in the switching characteristic measured with the developed measurement system is compared to the switching characteristics given by the manufactures in the data sheet.

Sensorless AC drives do not require speed sensor and have the advantage of high reliability and low cost. The sensorless control techniques require the estimation of internal state variables and the accuracy of this estimation influences the overall control performances. Moreover, implementation of a state observer which computes speed signal and the use of digital filter introduce intrinsic delays which affect electrical drive performances. The result is a deterioration of control performances even if control parameters are correctly tuned. The control of a dualinertia elastic system is a critical application because of the undesired mechanical oscillations and its sensitivity to motor speed feedback estimation. This paper presents a multi-layer estimator to control a dual inertia elastic system.

In these years electronics is facing a great change because of the introduction of new materials, i.e. Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN). These materials feature great electrical and thermal properties. The current semiconductor solutions have pushed Si and GaAs at their very limits in terms of thermal behavior and efficiency.
The new semicondcutors, i.e. silicon carbide and gallium nitride, has opened the way to new possibilities and challenges.
In addition, SiC and GaN prove to perform well also in the presence of radiations.
This first part of this review deals with silicon carbide and gallium nitride electrical and thermal features.
The second part deals with GaN behavior in the presence of radiations.
Finally, the third part deals with short and long-term reliability issues of new GaN-based devices.